Newcastle United takeover: Phil McNulty asks what Magpies should do in their new era
- Published
- comments
Newcastle co-owner Amanda Staveley speaks to BBC Sports Editor Dan Roan on day Saudi takeover was completed
When the euphoria dies down, when tearful fans hugging and kissing new owners in hotel car parks stops and the lager sprayed on the steps of St James' Park in celebration dries up, reality will still be waiting for Newcastle United.
Newcastle United will still be 19th in the Premier League without a win this season and with a lame duck manager in Steve Bruce, whose time on Tyneside can probably be measured in weeks if he is lucky.
The Saudi Arabian-backed takeover was greeted with undisguised elation by 'The Toon Army' as the valid questions about their human rights record was brushed aside by many in the rush to welcome in the new era.
In the purely footballing context, this is Newcastle United's Chelsea moment, their Manchester City moment and, if we wish to widen it out, their Paris St-Germain moment.
It is akin to the day Roman Abramovich walked into Stamford Bridge in July 2003 and transformed the club. Newcastle United fans will liken it to when Manchester City's Abu Dhabi-based owners altered the Premier League's entire landscape within 24 hours in September 2008.
The work on rebuilding this broken football club and its fractured relationship with a fervent fanbase starts now.
Softly softly or big bang?
Newcastle United's new hierarchy has until January before the first test of their intent and financial muscle in the transfer market will be seen. In reality, this is a notoriously difficult market to get value although Newcastle's league position may focus their minds more sharply.
When Abramovich arrived at Chelsea, he elevated the club with regular sweeps of his chequebook. In the few weeks before his first season started, then manager Claudio Ranieri was given money to buy Joe Cole, Damien Duff, Juan Sebastian Veron, Glen Johnson and Geremi.
The spending went on and Chelsea won the Premier League in Abramovich's second season and became part of Europe's elite, winning the Champions League twice, the first of which coming in 2012.
Manchester City's new owners arrived in even more spectacular fashion, especially as they only had 24 hours to make their first big statements before the transfer window closed.
And how they made it, by lifting Brazil superstar Robinho out from under Chelsea's nose for £32.5m then making an audacious - if ultimately unsuccessful attempt - to steal Dimitar Berbatov away from Manchester United as he left Spurs.
City have gone on to win five Premier League titles, although the Champions League continued to elude them.
This was the big bang theory. Two clubs who had fallen off the pace playing catch-up at lightning pace, which they continued to do until their power could no longer be denied. They have been in the upper echelon of the Premier League ever since, silverware has arrived regularly and Europe is now their playground.
Newcastle United are a million miles away in terms of position, prestige and attraction - and this is even before you factor Liverpool and Manchester United into the equation.
There is a lot of dirty work to be done first and the messages out of the new regime talk about organic growth, development of the training ground at Darsley Park (or delivering a new one) and the academy, ringfencing local talent.
There will still be a transfer fund on a different level than anything seen under the despised but now departed Mike Ashley, but any suggestions of a wild spending spree is being played down.
And yet, fuelled by the naked jubilation that seems to be gripping Tyneside, will the rulers from Saudi Arabia - whose wealth dwarfs the owners of Manchester City and the Qatari powerbrokers of PSG - be able to resist?
Will it be the quick fix, which it might have to be if they are still struggling in January, or the longer game?
It is a tricky balancing act and one that is very difficult to get right first time.
The expectations?
Newcastle United: Amanda Staveley arrives at St James' Park for the first time as co-owner
Much is made of the expectations of Newcastle United fans. It is the source of much mockery from rival supporters but the reality is far from what is often portrayed.
Newcastle's fans do not (in the Ashley years at least) demand titles, cups or Champions League entry. They simply wanted an institution with such vast support in a one-club city to show its potential, to punch its true weight. Not simply make up the numbers with Premier League survival its sole aim.
Nothing wrong with that at all.
The game changed once the takeover was confirmed. The expectations are now sky high. The demands will be more intense.
In the dream world Newcastle fans were occupying on Thursday, Kylian Mbappe was on his way over the Tyne Bridge to join new manager Antonio Conte.
It's a leap of imagination, to lure those stellar names to Newcastle United given their current plight, mega-rich new owners or not.
Newcastle was a feverish place in the hours after the confirmation and deal broker Amanda Staveley, who will be on the new board, said: "Of course we have the same ambitions as Manchester City and PSG in terms of trophies, absolutely, but that will take time."
Patience seems to be the watchword.
Newcastle United's fans have been patient a long time and it is a simple fact that Staveley and her cohorts will now have to deal with, and satisfy, expectations on the grand scale from supporters who have to cast their minds back to the Inter Cities Fairs Cup of 1969 and grainy black and white images for their last success.
The manager?
We all know how this ends. Steve Bruce will lose his job. It is simply a matter of when. Any new regime always wants their own man.
Claudio Ranieri took Chelsea to second place in the Premier League and the Champions League semi-final only to be sacked and replaced by Jose Mourinho in June 2004.
Manchester City's owners sacked Mark Hughes in December 2009 even though they were sixth in the league having lost only two games and had reached the League Cup semi-finals.
He had been given £200m to spend but more was expected and he was not an Abu Dhabi appointment - so in came Roberto Mancini to eventually win the title.
Alan Shearer speaks to BBC Breakfast about Newcastle United takeover
It will be even easier to Newcastle's new broom to sweep Bruce away. He has none of the goodwill enjoyed by Ranieri and Hughes when they lost their jobs, or indeed their records.
He is deeply unpopular with supporters, has not won a league game this season and has already spoken like a man bracing himself for dismissal.
It will come as no surprise to him when the axe falls, the more difficult question to answer is: who's next?
Already the names are doing the rounds, from Leicester City's Brendan Rodgers to Rangers' Steven Gerrard.
Rodgers seems settled at Leicester and would Gerrard, who looks certain to succeed Jurgen Klopp when he leaves Liverpool, risk the gamble of putting that on the line in the ever-volatile surroundings of Newcastle United?
Mourinho would have been the perfect profile had he not committed to AS Roma while it is widely accepted Rafa Benitez, still beloved on Tyneside after his spell there, would have been the owners' choice had the takeover happened when first mooted. He is now at Everton, where he has made an outstanding start.
And after his brilliant success with Italy at Euro 2020 could Mancini even be asked to do for Newcastle what he did for Manchester City?
The other usual suspects are being rounded up from Conte, Frank Lampard, Roberto Martinez and Eddie Howe.
Conte is available and is a superb coach who has won the Premier League with Chelsea. He also won Serie A at Inter Milan but is an incendiary personality who has clashed with owners in the past and is high maintenance.
Would he be the right man? Would he even be interested? He will surely factor in their thinking.
Dismissing Bruce is easy - but then comes the most important appointment of all.
Our coverage of Newcastle United is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment
